Description and Delivering Information for Genre Writers

How to Deliver Information and Build a World Without Slowing Down Your Story

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Delivering information, particularly through description, is one of the hardest tools for a writer to refine. Too much information and a reader drowns or feels overburdened; too little and they are lost and unable to connect with the story. How do you convey what the reader needs to know without confusing, alienating, or boring them? How do you subtly introduce clues and foreshadowing without being obvious? How do you create a world that comes alive for your reader and makes them want to keep reading?

In a combination of lecture, writing exercises, and examples, this class will show you how to convey what your reader needs to know without calling attention to the act. You'll learn how to make the most of descriptive moments: how to use them to advance the plot, provide props for later use, deliver insight into character and relationships, and more.

Your Instructor

Cat Rambo

A teacher for over three decades at institutions including the Johns Hopkins University, Clarion West, and Indiana University, Cat Rambo is engaging, personable, and supportive, providing insight, encouragement, and inspiration to students who want to pursue writing and publishing speculative fiction.

Her credentials include a MA in writing from the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, where she studied with John Barth and the Clarion West Writers Workshop and the Clarion West workshop, where she studied with Octavia Butler, L. Timmel DuChamp, Andy Duncan, Gordon van Gelder, Michael Swanwick, and Connie Willis. She has been nominated for the Compton Crook Award for First Novel, as well as Endeavour, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards and is the former editor of Fantasy Magazine. Her own work includes over 200 short stories, several novels, a cookbook, a guidebook to Baltimore, and Creating an Online Presence for Writers. She is the current President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).

Frequently Asked Questions

The course starts now and never ends! It is a completely self-paced online course - you decide when you start and when you finish.

How long do I have access to the course?

How does lifetime access sound? After enrolling, you have unlimited access to this course for as long as you like - across any and all devices you own.

What if I am unhappy with the course?

We would never want you to be unhappy! If you are unsatisfied with your purchase, contact us in the first 30 days and we will give you a full refund.

off original price!

The coupon code you entered is expired or invalid, but the course is still available!

Some testimonials from past students:

Wanted to crow and say thanks: the first story I wrote after taking your class was my very first sale. Coincidence? nah….thanks so much. -K. Richardson

Cat is a fun tutor with plenty of experience as both a fiction writer and a professional editor. She has plenty of sound, practical advice to offer, and the writing exercises are enjoyable. -Cheryl Morgan

On the literary techniques in speculative fiction class: Not only do I feel like I isolated some important bridges between literary and genre fiction, I also feel like I came away with a treasure trove of secrets and information pertaining to real life career, time management, and market considerations. I came away feeling deviously lucky — like a lotto winner. -Camille Griep

I took Cat’s editing class and it was such a help and quite delightful. She’s a great teacher, a fun person, and she keeps it light and entertaining while still helping you learn and grow. – Bryan Thomas Schmidt